SOS10.4.3 World Culture and Global Society (5 ECTS)

Wed 12.9.2012 – 7.11.2012 at 14-16

Objectives: The aim of this course is for students to acquaint themselves with sociological theories and conceptions of world culture and world society. The course begins with the recognition that the world is looking institutionally similar. Building on explanations of this observation by neoinstitutionalist theory of world society, the course explores the structuring of world society as institutionalization of global models of rationality. The specific focus of the course is on the interface between global and local, especially in understanding how global models are created and localized in national settings. The course emphasizes readings on the institutional nature of world culture, and how it informs national institutions. However, some attention is also paid to the observation that while global models are emerging and being institutionalized nationally, the actual processes of growing harmonization are not uniform or simplistic top-down adoption, as is often assumed. Rather, the growing similarity of institutions and policies transnationally is matched by rhetoric of nationalism on a domestic level.

Language of instruction: English.

Modes of study: Active participation in the lectures and seminar, reading articles, giving a presentation based on an article read in the seminar. 

Teachers: Coordinators: Jukka Syväterä and Ali Qadir. Other teachers: Pertti Alasuutari, Elina Mikola, Marjaana Rautalin, Laura Valkeasuo.

Grading: 1-5. The students may choose either to write a learning diary or to sit for an exam at the end of the course. To pass the course, active participation is required during the lectures and seminars. Students also give a presentation based on an article read during course.

Max. 25 students, preliminary enrollment required.